By Tom Ganser
Correspondent
The City of Whitewater Common Council on Sept. 22 unanimously selected Cameron L. Clapper to serve as the next city manager, according to a press release.
Pending formal approval of an employment agreement by the council on Oct. 2, Clapper will become the ninth city manager in Whitewater. The city manager structure for Whitewater’s local government was approved by referendum on April 5, 1955, replacing a mayoral system of local government.
Clapper began working for the City of Whitewater in April 2010 as assistant city manager, following five years of service as assistant to the village administrator in Waunakee.
Clapper earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in international studies and a Masters of Public Administration degree from Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.
Clapper had served as interim manager for the City of Whitewater following the resignation of Kevin Brunner who took a job as director of central services for the Walworth County Public Works Department in July.
Clapper was one of five applicants invited to interview for the position.
The other candidates included Edward Gil De Rubio (recent city manager for Trinidad, Colo.), Richard Johnston (current town administrator/clerk for Clayton), Jeff Kooistra (recent city administrator/clerk for Waukee, Iowa) and Paul Moderacki (current administrator for the Village of Mukwonago).
The council selected Clapper following a series of events to get to know the candidates.
Following an afternoon “Meet and Greet” public reception for the candidates on Sept. 21 at the Whitewater Innovation Center, a public forum was held in the City of Whitewater Municipal Building Community Room.
The forum was moderated by Jan Bilgen Craggs, Associate Director of Career & Leadership Development at UW-Whitewater.
The structure of the forum was identical to recent ones held in the Community Room. Candidates were given two minutes to introduce themselves, answer a series of questions based on suggestions from community members and to make concluding remarks. The order in which the candidates answered the questions rotated among the candidates.
In his introduction, Clapper attributed his interest in a career in government to experiences while serving as a missionary in Mexico.
“I decided then that I wanted to make a difference in my community,” he said.
When asked “What things would you do to get acquainted with Whitewater and its community members?” Clapper identified several individuals and groups in city government, at UW-Whitewater, and the community with whom he would establish or re-establish relationships.
Clapper suggested that he hoped conversations with them would go beyond concerns about “filling that pothole on somebody’s street” to “seeing where they are in terms of their own plans, and goals and objectives for the community, and then seeing where the city can help.”
With a bit of low-keyed humor, Clapper added that he suspected there would also be other individuals in the community who will “probably call me before I get a chance to call them.”
In response to a question about integrity, Clapper said, “I’ll start out with the point that in public administration there is a very true or strict, firm code of ethics, a rigid standard that we ascribe to. That ethical code means a great deal,” he said.
Clapper said administrators look for the interests of the community first.
“Even if that means sacrificing opportunities that could come about because you learn about things going on in the community, things that you could take advantage of with your family,” Clapper explained.
Clapper gave as an example of his professional integrity not accepting free tickets to a Shakespeare festival in Spring Green offered to him by a marketing firm while serving as assistant village manager in Waunakee.
The third question asked of the candidates was “With the city manager/council type of government, who do you think is the group that runs the city and makes the decisions, and how does that work for you?”
“The Council really is the forward thinking body that sets the policy for the organization,” Clapper said.
Clapper said it is the responsibility of the manager and the department directors to oversee “the day-to-day operations of getting the job done.”
To support the council in making sound decisions about policies, Clapper said it is the duty of the manager and department directors to provide the council with “ideas, suggestions, recommendations, and best practices [based on] research about issues that are affecting the community.”
In response to a question soliciting ideas about how to make connections between the Whitewater Unified School District, UW-Whitewater and the City of Whitewater, Clapper said that those three entities “have worked together for quite some time now, and worked very well together” and that a continuing, positive relationships between these organizations “is almost essential to be able to operate effectively with limited resources.”
Clapper underscored the importance of “open communication between the school district, the university, and the city … in terms of sustaining each other with whatever the project might be.”
In describing his management style, Clapper portrayed the city manager’s role as one more of an orchestrator.
“The manager is a generalist and the specialists of the organization are the department directors,” he said.
Clapper said he is not “a self-champion” or someone who is interested in gaining personal recognition for successful projects. Instead, he views himself as “very much a team player.”
Clapper described the duties and responsibilities of the city manager as “in a way thrilling.”
Clapper said he finds the most satisfaction in “problem solving with department staff and directors.”
As city manager, Clapper said he would also find satisfaction in coaching city employees to promote their professional growth.
Asked to relate an economic development success in which he had participated, Clapper recalled an experience in Waunakee as assistant to the village administrator. Soon after arriving at his new job, Clapper discovered a downtown community that “didn’t really feel as though it had a voice in the village” and shop owners who were frustrated by past treatment and distrustful of local government as a result.
“Over the course of the five years that I was there,” Clapper said, “I established multiple committees involving the Chamber of Commerce and other downtown groups, getting a chance to meet face-to-face with all the business owners and providing an opportunity for them to feel as though they at least had an ombudsman in the village hall.”
The final question asked of the candidates regarded “distressed TIDs” [Tax Incremental Districts] and strategies for alleviating the situation.
Clapper said “there are only a few ways” to do this, including using the revenues of another TID or “just continuing to pay the debt until it’s taken care of.” Clapper did not hesitate to say that the strategy of re-financing the debt as mentioned by one of the other candidates was something he did not have much experience with.
In his closing remarks, Clapper shared that “I really enjoy, in fact, I love, public administration [and] the ability to work with communities.”
“If I were given the opportunity to continue in the capacity as city manager … I’d be building relationships, looking for opportunities to work together to achieve common good with different organizations in the community,” he said.
Following Clapper’s selection as city manager, Kevin Brunner, who served as Whitewater’s city manager for eight years, said, “He’s proven himself in his brief time with the city as a leader and as a person who can do great things. I’m really happy for him and I’m happy for the community.”
Clapper and his wife, Michelle, reside in Whitewater with their three children, Jared, Afton, and Caleb.
